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| FILE - Vanessa Bryant, center, Kobe Bryant's widow, leaves a federal courthouse with her daughter Natalia, center left, soccer player Sydney Leroux, center right, in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. The family of the late Kobe Bryant has agreed to a $28.5 million settlement with Los Angeles County to resolve the remaining claims in a lawsuit over deputies and firefighters sharing grisly photos of the NBA star, his 13-year-old daughter and other victims killed in a 2020 helicopter crash, attorneys and court filings said Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) |
The figure includes a newly agreed upon payment from the
county of $13.5 million along with the $15 million a federal jury awarded
Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, at a trial in August.
The agreement resolves any future claims by Bryant’s three
surviving daughters, related issues pending in state court, and other costs. A
proposed settlement order, which a judge must approve, was filed Tuesday in
federal court.
“Today marks the successful culmination of Mrs. Bryant’s
courageous battle to hold accountable those who engaged in this grotesque
conduct,” Bryant’s attorney Luis Li said in a statement. “She fought for her
husband, her daughter, and all those in the community whose deceased family
were treated with similar disrespect.”
Mira Hashmall, the attorney representing LA County, called
the statement “fair and reasonable” adding, “We hope Ms. Bryant and her
children continue to heal from their loss.”
Kobe Bryant, the former Lakers star, five-time NBA champion
and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, was traveling with Gianna and seven
others to a youth basketball game when the helicopter they were aboard crashed
into hills in Calabasas west of Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2020.
Deputies and firefighters responding to the crash scene shot
phone photos of the bodies and the wreckage, which Hashmall argued at trial
were an essential part of assessing the situation.
But the pictures were shared, mostly between employees of
the county sheriff’s and fire departments, including by some who were playing
video games and attending an awards banquet. They were also seen by some of
their spouses and in one case by a bartender at a bar where a deputy was
drinking.
Li told jurors that the close-up photos had no official or
investigative purpose, and were mere “visual gossip” shared out of a gruesome
curiosity.
Hashmall argued that the sheriff acted swiftly and
appropriately when he ordered the photos deleted.
Vanessa Bryant tearfully testified during the 11-day trial
that news of the photos compounded her still-raw grief a month after losing her
husband and daughter, and that she still has panic attacks at the thought that
they might still be out there and her daughters might someday see them online.
The verdict in her favor was erroneously read as $16 million
in court, but was later amended to $15 million.
Federal safety officials blamed pilot error for the crash
itself.
Chris Chester, Vanessa Bryant’s co-plaintiff at the trial,
was also awarded $15 million at trial, and reached his own settlement with the
county in September for nearly $5 million more. -AP